Be the Barista's Favorite: How to Perfectly Order Coffee in Chinese

Neither of you really have time to play charades for every item on their menu.

If you want your drink quick—and made the way you like it—you’ll need to master ordering coffee in Chinese.

Coffee-loving expats in big cities like Shanghai are pretty spoiled in terms of how little Chinese they need to get by. China’s coffee culture has been booming recently, and at just about every corner you’re bound to find a Western coffee chain staffed with locals who understand generic orders such as a latte or an americano.

Obviously, a statement like such isn’t sufficient, but for all intents and purposes, use this as the foundation in building your order. We’ll use this formula as a jumping off point throughout the rest of this post.

Types of Coffee and Drinks

If a regular coffee isn’t where you get your usual caffeine fix, here are the translations of other standard beverages commonly served across coffee chains, cafes and restaurants:

拿铁 (ná tiě) — Latte

浓缩咖啡 (nóng suō kā fēi) — Espresso

卡布奇诺 (kǎ bù jī nuò) — Cappuccino

摩卡 (mó kǎ) — Mocha

美式咖啡 (měi shì kā fēi) — Americano

玛奇朵 (mǎ qí duǒ) — Macchiato

星冰乐 (xīng bīng lè) — Frappuccino

冷萃 (lěng cuì) — Cold brew

茶 (chá) — Tea

Depending on the coffee chain, they may offer other types of teas. If you want the iced version of any of the above, just add the word “iced,” which is 冰 (bīng), in front of the drink name.

Here are a couple of examples of iced drinks:

冰拿铁 (bīng ná tiě) — Iced latte

冰红茶 (bīng hóng chá) — Iced black tea

Choosing a Size

As we’ve already established, the simple sentence “I would like a cup of coffee,” or whatever drink you’re ordering, doesn’t specify everything you might want. The next detail you’ll need to provide is the size of your drink. The size should be inserted before your actual drink of choice.

Thus, the formula would look like this: Greeting + I would like a + cup size + drink.

Most coffee places will follow the standardized sizing, which are small (小, pronounced “xiǎo”), medium (中, pronounced “zhōng”) and large (大, pronounced “dà”). This is actually easier than a lot of coffee shops with English menus, where sizes like “regular” can vary between small and medium, depending on the establishment.

Of course, Starbucks has its own system for cup sizes, so let’s take a look at what each cup translates to in Chinese.

小杯 (xiǎo bēi) — Short

中杯 (zhōng bēi) — Tall

大杯 (dà bēi) — Grande

超大杯 (chāo dà bēi) — Venti

Customizing Your Order

Like a bit of sweetness with your coffee? Need an extra shot of espresso to kickstart your morning? Or maybe you need soy milk because you’re lactose intolerant or are a vegan. (Unlike in other countries where you may be judged for this milk substitute, soy milk is very popular in China. So if that’s the how you want to customize your order, by all means, go for it!)

Flavors, add-ons and customizations are perhaps the most important part of the formula for those that have specific orders in mind, whether it be due to taste or some sort of food allergy.

Building onto the formula we currently have, the flavor would be inserted in between the size and the drink name, while the add-on would follow, making the sentence structure more or less like so: Greeting + I would like a + cup size + flavor + drink + with/without + add-on(s).

Note: “With/without” in this context would be translated as 要 (yào)/不要 (bù yào).

Each coffee shop will have its own flavors of coffee drinks and syrups, but let’s discuss some of the common ones:

香草 (xiāng cǎo) — Vanilla

榛子 (zhēn zi) — Hazelnut

薄荷 (bò hé) — Peppermint

巧克力 (qiǎo kè lì) — Chocolate

焦糖 (jiāo táng) — Caramel

草莓 (cǎo méi) — Strawberry

拉茶 (lā chá) — Chai tea

绿茶 (lǜ chá) — Green tea

抹茶 (mǒ chá) — Matcha

As for add-ons and custom orders, here are some phrases that may be of use to you:

鲜奶油 (bù yào xiān nǎi yóu) — Whipped cream

双份浓缩 (shuāng fèn nóngsuō) — Double shot of espresso

牛奶 (niú nǎi) — Milk

低脂牛奶 (dī zhī niú nǎi) — Low fat milk

豆浆 (dòu jiāng) — Soy milk

糖 (táng) — Sugar

奶精 (nǎi jīng) — Creamer

低咖啡因 (dī kāfēi yīn) — Decaf

For Here or To Go?

Most cashiers will assume that you’re having your coffee at their establishment unless you specify that you’re on the run.

To indicate whether it’s for here or to go, here’s how you would form your sentence: Greeting + I would like a + cup size + flavor + drink + with/without + add-on(s) + for here/to go.

So after you’ve given your order, you can say either:

在这里用 (zài zhè lǐ yòng) — For here

打包 (dǎ bāo) — To go

There are a couple of Chinese translations for “to go” and “takeaway,” and different cities in China will often use one more than the other.

The translation above is used commonly in the mainland, but shouldn’t be used in Hong Kong since it means, “to wrap a dead body.”

Thanking Your Barista

Last but not least, when all is said and done, don’t forget to end with 谢谢 (xiè xiè), which means, “Thank you!”

Once you’ve got your usual order down, put yourself to the test and take a group order.

It’s challenges like these that’ll really immerse you in the language and culture.

Of course, it may be a while before you can perfect all your different beverage orders, but remember that one of the keys to speaking better Mandarin is to not be too hard on yourself. Just keep practicing, and you’ll get there eventually.

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